Check your user agent line; Apple owners might overpay as well...
How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
91–100 of 127 posts
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#92Ticket prices will also be different if you use an international credit card. I used to save 100+ bucks with paypal instead of my Chinese credit card.
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pull that trick on me and I'd go a mile out of my way not to give you business any more. And I wouldn't be alone. Punishment of cheaters and exploiters is a human social instinct.
Your outrage is noted. I feel exactly the same way about the way highly admired companies around here behave, only they have nicer names for exploitation like "price discrimination" and "market segmentation" and "monetizing customers."
So it's okay to lie to your customers and be an asshole as long as other people are doing it too.
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#94This sounds quite familiar to the manipulation Orbitz did in 2012 based on the user's reported operating system: http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/06/25/orbitz_displaying_...
That is incorrect and unfortunate that it left the wrong impression in user's minds. Orbitz did not price up hotels based on OS, they chose to change the list of options presented to users based on OS. This is no different than what we simply call "personalization". If a user found the Wynn on a Mac or a PC, they were the same exact price, all that was different was what position that hotel was in in the default sort…
That's an awful fine distinction there.
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#95"BTW, I use the VPN to mask my internet traffic… sorry NSA"
As if using a VPN made you NSA-proof. Every time I see phrases like this I force myself not to think the person is a fool but it's hard.
People need to realize that ensuring security and privacy isn't fixed by installing just some tool and be done with it. Worse, they will do this and trust they are immune (and then the damage will be worse).
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#96The price descrimination that the airlines do is so opaque and manipulative, this is exactly why one needs to be cognizant of the technicals. We are really only a single logical step removed from a pretty bad place (read: racist/sexist/elitist, etc) with this teqnique to dynamic pricing and (essentially) ... front-running.[1] For example, we can charge black people more (based on zip-code demographics) to discourage…
For example, we can charge black people more (based on zip-code demographics) to discourage them from flying first class. A middleman like Kayak has no incentive to keep black people out of first-class. They do have an incentive to price discriminate: charge people more who would be willing to pay more. Likely outcome: lower fares for economically disadvantaged groups. Except the middlemen are all required to charge…
No incentive to keep black people out of first-class. They do have an incentive to price discriminate: charge people more who would be willing to pay more. Likely outcome: lower fares for economically disadvantaged groups.
This is insanely naive. Do you really think that rich people don't pay a premium for "exclusivity"? And who, pray tell, do you imagine they are trying to exclude?
[0] http://www.wired.com/design/2013/08/how-segregated-is-your-c...
[1] http://jezebel.com/5985110/new-york-fashion-weeks-models-are...
[2] http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/macy-hit-class-action-sh...
[3] http://valleywag.gawker.com/harvard-study-black-people-get-s...
[4] http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1934432
[5] http://valleywag.gawker.com/racial-profiling-newest-trend-in...
[6] http://qz.com/149342/the-uncomfortable-racial-preferences-re...
[7] see p. 4, http://ccrjustice.org/files/Report-CCR-NYPD-Stop-and-Frisk.p...
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
For example, we can charge black people more (based on zip-code demographics) to discourage them from flying first class. A middleman like Kayak has no incentive to keep black people out of first-class. They do have an incentive to price discriminate: charge people more who would be willing to pay more. Likely outcome: lower fares for economically disadvantaged groups. Except the middlemen are all required to charge…
No incentive to keep black people out of first-class. They do have an incentive to price discriminate: charge people more who would be willing to pay more. Likely outcome: lower fares for economically disadvantaged groups. This is insanely naive. Do you really think that rich people don't pay a premium for "exclusivity"? And who, pray tell, do you imagine they are trying to exclude? [0] http://www.wired.com/design/20…
His point was that Kayak, who is simply a lead generator has no incentive to do so, not that discrimination doesn't exist in the world.
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
For example, we can charge black people more (based on zip-code demographics) to discourage them from flying first class. A middleman like Kayak has no incentive to keep black people out of first-class. They do have an incentive to price discriminate: charge people more who would be willing to pay more. Likely outcome: lower fares for economically disadvantaged groups. Except the middlemen are all required to charge…
No incentive to keep black people out of first-class. They do have an incentive to price discriminate: charge people more who would be willing to pay more. Likely outcome: lower fares for economically disadvantaged groups. This is insanely naive. Do you really think that rich people don't pay a premium for "exclusivity"? And who, pray tell, do you imagine they are trying to exclude? [0] http://www.wired.com/design/20…
Half of your citations are Gawker. Do you work for them or something? Why would you link to Internet equivalent of the trashiest British tabloid?
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your outrage is noted. I feel exactly the same way about the way highly admired companies around here behave, only they have nicer names for exploitation like "price discrimination" and "market segmentation" and "monetizing customers."
So it's okay to lie to your customers and be an asshole as long as other people are doing it too.
No, that's not what I said. What I said was, I understand his outrage, and here's an example of where I feel it too. Empathy.
Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight
#100Looks like the cheap flights were on WN (Southwest) and the expensive flights were on DL (Delta). I just did an example flight search to fly later this week (Jan 24-30 round trip) from SLC to OAK, a route that both DL and WN fly direct. Kayak shows me fares from $492 on US and B6 changing planes in Phoenix or Long Beach (doubling distance and quintupling flight time) and direct flights from $532 on DL. Kayak doesn't…
> So what's the lesson here? Check the WN site directly instead of depending on search sites. Kayak and TripAdvisor will give you unpriced WN flights in their search results. You still have to check WN directly for prices, but it's useful for seeing what's available.
Being from Dallas (Southwest HQ) I know that Southwest doesn't allow other websites to use their booking and online flight pricing. Most airlines can be checked through Google Flights or Kayak but I know that I have to check with Southwest directly to compare their prices. BUMP: I guess I should have read the other comments as this has been said a dozen times.